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Friday, 9 September 2011

Heirlooms!

Earlier on this year, I was very lucky to be allowed to take temporary ownership of two heirloom chairs from my wonderful mother in law!

The first one belonged to Tony's (my husband!) Grandpa's mother. It's unknown how long she had it for, but his Nan remember's sitting in it in her kitchen when her and Tony's Grandpa were first married! Hope that isn't too confusing! It's pretty old anyway, which is evident by the amount of different paint colors that are on it! It was all chipped and flaky and it was love at first sight for me! My MIL looked at me silently and blinked for a second when, after she'd said how the details would come up really nice with the paint scraped off, and I responded with, "I'm not touching it, I love it just how it is!"
Here it is:

All I did was scrape off all the flaky stuff, then I sprayed it with two coats of a satin poly. Easy peasy!!

The second chair was my MIL's from when she was little. It also had been painted many times, but it's last coat was mission brown in gloss! If you're Australian , you'll have heard of mission brown. For those who aren't, it was a shade of brown (a kind of poo color!!) that was extremely popular in the late seventies, early eighties. (I think!) Everybody used it, mostly on house trims.
Needless to say, we aren't in the eighties anymore! I know some things from the eighties are being revived, just not mission brown! Hopefully it stays that way!! So, the brown had to go and I really liked what was underneath, so I just went with it.

All I did was hit it with the sander until I was happy with it, then waxed it. I love that the seat had a light mint green on it! It's a nice contrast. Speaking of contrasts, you'll notice the dark green design on the back rest. I put that on because it was on the back of one of these chairs and to help me sleep at night after painting them white, I knew the design would be preserved on this chair. It was my first attempt at stencilling, not a complete success but I'll get better with practice. I traced it off the old chair and used spray paint to apply it to this one. The dark green was all I had at the time, now I've lived with it for a while I love it! It's something unexpected!
I misplaced the footrest at some point which is why there's two big holes on the front legs!

Have you ever received a family heirloom? If so, what was it and did you change anything about it? I'd love to hear from you, please leave me a comment!

Welcome!!

Hi,I'm Courtney! A former hairdresser turned SAHM, vintage furniture re-designer, DIY-er and self-proclaimed interior decorator for our newly renovated home. I hope you find some inspiration while you visit, because if I can do it - you can too!! Oh, and call me Courts!!